Area 52 Delta 8 Gummies: The Ultimate Guide + FAQs

Area 52 is a Delta 8 company that has Delta 8 products including Delta 8 THC Gummies that one can buy online. Area 52’s Delta 8 Gummies are pricier at $60 for a 30 count, but how do you know if it’s worth paying more for a product? When Delta 8 products cost more does it mean they’re a better product? There are a lot of Delta 8 companies out there and prices for the same products vary greatly so how do you know when it’s worth paying more or not?

The key is knowing the right questions to ask and enough about the process to know what matters and what doesn’t. This can be tricky because most people don’t want to take the time to become experts and there’s so much misleading information online- who do you trust and what do you really need to know?

Transparently, we are a company that also has best-selling Delta 8 Gummies and products for nearly half the price and would like to earn your business, but we will do our best to be objective in giving you the points of consideration needed to decide for yourself what fits your needs.

Of our core tenets providing education to the industry businesses and consumers we provide products to and doing our best to create the most effective, safe products we can is at the top. In that process, we have learned a lot, which we are happy to share in this post and others, to lift the industry as a whole.

We will specifically review Area 52’s Delta 8 THC Gummies, discussing their Delta 8 Gummy Product and company details. But let’s start with the variables that impact the quality of Delta 8 THC Gummy in general since it’s a popular product that many people buy and the rules here will apply to Area 52’s Delta 8 Gummy as well.

The key differences between one Delta 8 Gummy product and the next are the texture; flavor, quality of the non-active ingredients, and the quality of the active inputs, such as Delta 8 THC.

Ideally, the best Delta 8 Gummy would be a perfect combination of soft mouthfeel but still firm enough that it’s not goo in your mouth and doesn’t instantly melt when in contact with the heat of the summertime. This is actually a common issue with Delta 8 Gummy products.

In the summertime, if not made right they can easily melt during shipping. For this reason, many Delta 8 Gummy companies err on the side of caution and make them firm. The issue is many are made too firm sacrificing making a better Delta 8 Gummy in favor of mitigating their risks of loss. The Hemp Collect ran over 20 tests on Delta 8 Gummy textures to find the best combination of soft and firm.

Then you have the taste of the Delta 8 Gummy. This is subjective but still, after trying many gummies we can say that some of the best tasting gummies contain real fruit juice, the trade-off of this is that it makes them more expensive. Other Delta 8 Gummies use natural fruit flavoring to keep costs down but there are still exceptional natural fruit flavors; there are also bad ones.

The Hemp Collect took time trying and finding flavors to find the best expressions of the most popular profiles for Delta 8 Gummies including pink lemonade, strawberry, blue raspberry, and mango. Some Delta 8 Gummies don’t contain enough of the flavoring and end up being bland or the flavoring can taste cheap or overly fake.

The other major flavor variable is the balance of acidic bite and sweetness of the Delta 8 Gummy. The citric or malic acids can either be formulated inside the gummy or more commonly it is mixed into the sugar that’s used to coat it. Many companies only use sugar as it’s cheaper and easier but it makes the Gummy overly sweet in most cases. In nature, fruit naturally has citric acid balancing out the sugar. The purpose of the sugar coating to the outside of the Delta 8 Gummy to help keep them from sticking together and allow for greater ease of use/dosing.

Let’s discuss the quality of ingredients next. When sourcing ingredients there can be contaminants in them and it’s important the ingredients are sourced from reputable places with good manufacturing practices to ensure purity and safety.

This includes the Delta 8 inputs. Some companies say their Delta 8 distillate is produced from a better process than others but at the end of the day- all Delta 8 distillate is made from hemp isolate input that has to be purified to ensure only safe compounds in the final distillate. Producers operating within the regulations of the industry should be testing for all catalyst and reaction agents in their final oil before manufacturing into a product.

Distillate potency is no doubt important as it shows it was made from good hemp input, however, product safety and process repeatability is paramount. A majority of Delta 8 distillate on the market is at potencies of 85%+ but some are lower, typically around 65%. This is most often caused by using a lower potency hemp CBD isolate, which then converts to a lower Delta 8 potency in the final oil. Whereas pharma-grade 99.5%+ potency isolate tends to lead to high potency Delta 8 distillate.

There are many companies presenting tests showing Delta 8 distillate at 95-99%%+ but if you call an accredited reputable lab they will tell you nearly all Delta 8 distillate is actually testing around 85-90%.  Isolated cannabinoids, like CBD hemp isolates, reach such ultra potencies but many consistent 90%+ Delta 8 potencies are from labs that do not have accurate testing standards or less than scrupulous “interpretations” of the THC peaks of the chromatograph– the equipment used to compare test samples against the known concentration of cannabinoids such as those used in testing for Delta 8 distillate. In short, lab testing is a scientific “best guess” at the potency but more importantly, lab results can ensure there are no residual solvents or harmful compounds left from the hemp extract conversion process. Consumers and manufacturers need to be sure the product they are purchasing was made with Delta 8 distillate from a reputable source with certified COAs in the 85% range and a full panel test to ensure safety.

Delta 8 distillate is made from CBD isolate and that isolate was made from a crude hemp extract such as ethanol or CO2 extract, rarely would anyone make distillate from higher quality, craft inputs like CBD live resin but you certainly could as it is also a full-spectrum extract. When it comes to distillate edibles, it doesn’t matter if the Delta 8 distillate was made from CO2 or ethanol sourced isolate nor its potency before formulation as in the end, 25 mg is 25 mg. What matters is that the Delta 8 used is safe and that the company tests properly to ensure it’s actually 25 mg in the final product.

Having a lower potency Delta 8 distillate used in Delta 8 products just means more Delta 8 distillate is needed in the product to get the 25 mg which could impact how much you taste it. The more Delta 8 distillate needed in the product, the more likely it will have a bitter distillate taste.

So to recap, the most common reason why one 25 mg Delta 8 Gummy would be stronger than the next is that the Delta 8 Gummy may actually contain more or less than 25 mg of Delta 8 if the company manufacturing them didn’t properly formulate and produce the gummies. Reliable dosing can only come from a reliable product. The test and packaging could say 25 mg but that doesn’t mean it’s accurate. Tests have wide levels of variance which we cover later in this post. And companies don’t always maintain the best transparency practices which brings us to:

We want to start this paragraph by emphasizing that there are many really reputable companies out there making quality products. Our point here is simply: don’t take what a company says at face value. Use critical thinking and resource other supporting sources to reinforce and verify their statements as true.

This goes back to the number of potential variables relating to product testing and how ultimately you have to trust the company as it’s not realistic to spend a ton of money and time validating all of every company’s claims.

There often is an un-due level of trust most consumers give a brand or business based on factors that are not actually indicative of whether the company is an ethical company. The most common examples of this are an overemphasis on pretty packaging or convincing marketing phrases across the products and site to mean the company is honest and ethical.

There are multiple companies that are some of the most ethical we know, with excellent therapeutic product formulations- that don’t have the best packaging (we say that with love) and in contrast, some companies put all of their energy into nice boxes and less into product quality.

As an example, there is a company, which we will omit the name of (name blasting is not our intent just showcasing the reality of consumer packaged products), where the FDA issued the CBD business a warning for selling methanol as hand sanitizer labeled to contain ethanol.

To be clear, methanol is considered toxic. The excerpt is edited to conceal the businesses name and to shorten:

Adulteration Violations: Substitution

Manufacturing operations at your facility included the receipt of bulk consumer hand sanitizer, which you filled into containers and labeled as the finished drug product. Based on the information provided during the inspection, you received bulk hand sanitizer from several suppliers, including manufacturers located in Mexico.

“Company Name” branded hand sanitizer, collected at your facility, is labeled to contain 70% volume of the active ingredient ethyl alcohol (ethanol). However, FDA laboratory testing of a batch of this product collected during the inspection found that the drug product contained on average 0% ethanol and an average of 58% methanol.

Additionally, the hand sanitizer, purported to be manufactured at your facility, is labeled to contain 70% of the active ingredient ethanol. However, FDA laboratory testing of this batch of this product obtained from the commercial market found that the drug product contained an average of 32% ethanol and an average of 7.4% methanol.

Therefore, these hand sanitizer drug products are adulterated under section 501(d)(2) of the FD&C Act in that the active ingredient, ethanol, was substituted wholly or in part with methanol, a dangerous chemical when in contact with human skin.

Methanol is not an acceptable ingredient for hand sanitizers and should not be used due to its toxic effects. Skin exposure to methanol can cause dermatitis, as well as transdermal absorption with systemic toxicity.

Substantial methanol exposure can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, permanent blindness, seizures, coma, permanent damage to the nervous system, or death.

And this all to emphasize that just because a company says something on a box or website, doesn’t make it true.

Unrepresentative Tests

There’s a lot that can go wrong here including a COA being used that’s not for that product or not for that product batch or falsified altogether. A concerning number of manufacturers have been seen to list a COA  for a product that didn’t truly represent the product being sold.

There are a lot of reasons this happens but the most common is a company will test a batch of products that comes out at that desired range and then use that batch test for hundreds of batches thereafter. This is argued to be an acceptable practice when nothing in the production process changes but even still, compound and potency variances can be greatly skewed when producing products in this way. The Hemp Collect and Modern Herb Co test their product batches regularly to avoid to ensure they have quality production quality.

COA switching can also happen when a manufacturer or vendor has a lower potency batch they want to sell for more so they use a higher potency COA to sell the product. This is the most common catalyst we have seen as well as a rush to get something sold before it can be tested. Sometimes it’s their own COA from a different batch but it could even be a COA from an entirely different vendor.

This is one of the biggest concerns by far and highlights the importance of manufacturers being competent. When producing Delta 8 it’s critical they ensure everything used to produce the Delta 8, is tested for by the labs they work with.

The cases of this we witnessed weren’t nefarious in so much as unintended ignorance. Regardless, this is not good for the consumers. This shows the importance of businesses in the supply chain understanding the safety and quality variables around the inputs and products they manufacture and sell and being accountable to that responsibility and the safety of those they serve.

Many labs vary on what compounds they test for so it is really important manufacturers do the extra step of due diligence which often means paying an increased cost for testing.

When a COA says “pass” it is only saying it passes for the tested compounds and when new things hit the market labs don’t always know what to test for right away which was definitely what we saw with Delta 8.

The best scenario would be that all of the compounds that could ever be used to manufacture Delta 8, are already a standard compound the lab would test for without having to be requested. Second would be consumers demanding to see all those things tested for so companies and labs to it. Consumers have the power to make change by voting with their purchases and speaking on third-party review forums.

And then it’s also everyone else’s duty in the supply chain to be secondary fail-safes for this. This includes the wholesalers and brands like The Hemp Collect and Modern Herb Co. It is everyone’s responsibility to do their part to know what compounds and residual compounds need to be tested for and to test for them to ensure accuracy from others in the supply chain, which The Hemp Collect does.

Problem One: COA Switching

Next is a smaller warning that doesn’t affect safety but still impacts a metric that is discussed too much honestly, and that’s Delta 8 potency. We have been a part of the CBD industry for a while now, since the “modern beginning” anyways, which is not back to the Jack Herer days (he was one of the early pioneers of hemp) but many months “PFB” which is the hemp equivalent of before Christ’s “BC” and means “pre-farm-bill” (which is when everything started taking off).

As we discussed, brands and businesses have been caught using COA’s from entirely different products or different product batches to represent their product as we mentioned above which means the potency you’re deciding to buy a product based on may not even be real. Which is problem number one.

Problem Two: COA Fishing

Many times the product COA’s are shopped to catch the biggest fish. “COA Fishing” is when a company sends their Delta 8 products and/or Delta 8 Gummies to get tested at multiple labs and then uses the highest potency test they are able to reel in and tosses out the rest.

Many times the test result that ends up showing the best numbers for potency is from a lab that isn’t accredited, which affects how much you can trust their test results. As an example, there is an unaccredited lab many brands use that has ridiculous results compared to accredited labs but many still use those test results. For example, we completely disregard any COAs ran by Marin labs.

Why does it matter if a lab is accredited? For one, it means their testing standards are verified and mean something. When you look at how labs test products it’s both complicated and simple in many ways. They have to have a standard test that sets their baselines and establishes what test spikes are identified as what compounds.

This not being done right can make a test completely wrong. And you have things like sloppy lab techs mixing up samples, not doing their jobs, and being missing steps or misinterpreting peaks on chromatographs which translates into the wrong potency percentages. Worse yet there are labs that aren’t accredited that will swing potency results higher to gain market share and new customers.

Then you have issues like the D10 scandal- which we got caught up in as well as many industry businesses where labs decided what they originally were calling D10 on returned test results was actually D6A10A. This decision to change the classification of test spikes from D10 to D6a10A came after the D10 had already been sold and hit the market. There is a price to innovation and that’s made more evident with unreliable labs and testing procedures.

But this isn’t isolated, there are many instances where labs have evolved and decided a peak they originally identified as one compound is changed to be another and that has affected Delta 8 potency analysis as well. As the Delta 8 market has matured, Delta 8 testing has evolved which has made it less common to find an accredited lab saying someone consistently has 90%+ Delta 8, while it was much more common to find a year ago.

On top of these variables, it gets even better. Call a lab and ask about the accuracy of potency analysis and you will find that there is a large amount of variance in potency testing and furthermore- acknowledged and accepted. And this is in cannabis as well as hemp. And in labs that have been around a long time like the one we use- Columbia Labs which is used by major food brands not just the hemp and cannabis industry.

And why this variance exists goes back to misinterpretations, human error, and many other things including different testing equipment. But with an industry-accepted testing variance of up to 20%, how can people rely so heavily on a 5%-10% difference in potency to impact what they are willing to pay for products?

Problem Three: Products Have Variance

This is most relevant when it comes to CBD hemp flower and cannabis flower but can also occur in edibles and products where the psychoactive compound doesn’t easily stay homogenized during manufacturing.

Let’s start with CBD hemp flower which grows in a field in many cases. Or even indoors where it needs lights. If one area of the field gets more light, it can alter the levels of the different compounds in the flower. And this is normal where trees surround fields and block light from reaching some of the plants during different times of the day. Even in indoor grows, there are spots where the light has a stronger range for some plants and less for others which will create variances in potency.

Then you have the top colas and bottom colas on just each plant. The top colas get more light than the bottom ones affecting variance even on a single plant in addition to the plant’s nutrient distribution, all leading to more and less potent spots.

Then we have genetic variance and phenotypic expression which is A LOT. Most people aren’t growing from clones which is the only way to really impact this. When plants are grown from seed which nearly all CBD hemp flower is, it can have a wide net of variance within that plant’s natural expression.

Problem 4: People

Let’s finish with edibles. We’ve heard of a lot going wrong here from accidentally mixing up a kilo of CBD and Delta 8 distillate and pouring the wrong one into products, to the most common, which is maintaining homogenization of active compounds during manufacturing.

Picture this, a kilo of Delta is heated up to pour into a big batch of Delta 8 Gummies being made. It then has to be fed into a machine when manufactured at scale or poured into small molds for smaller companies. This isn’t an instant process and in that time the Delta 8 can and will slowly separate as the compounds in the Gummy mix have different weights.

Furthermore, let’s say I have a kilo of Delta 8 distillate and I don’t use all of it at once. So I heat it up to use some of it. Then I heat it up again later to use more and so on. Every time the Delta 8 distillate is exposed to heat it can degrade and also alter the compounds in the distillate including potency, often converting Delta 8 to CBN.

We know all this because we have worked with a lot of industry companies and consulted on how to do things right and learned the lessons from this time and experience.

Needed Solution: Control Studies

Among many things, control studies are needed to ensure accuracy in labeling. This means taking randomized samples from different areas of batches to verify consistency. This is required in cannabis testing and for now-obvious reasons. Reputable brands and businesses like The Hemp Collect also take the time to re-test product inputs coming in from other processors before formulating products we base our potencies on.

We have received plenty of extracts from partner suppliers where their numbers were off and had we not re-tested to verify the potency we would have had our formulations off as well. It cost more money to do things the right way but ultimately it saves it too.

The end point here is that a company can easily put whatever they want on a label and many times nothing will come of it. They can easily farm and falsify potency and test results. So here is a recap and summary of what you need to look for to decide if a product is good or not:

1. Trust the companies you buy from and don’t just base your trust off of pretty packaging, a nice site, or big words. Everyone is going to write about how much they care and how great their products are (including us) and that doesn’t make it not true but it doesn’t make it true by default either. Look for the signals beyond what they say that show those statements are true.
   
   
2. This includes the ethos and morals of the founders guiding the company’s decisions. Learn what you can about them as a person. Are they informed? Do they show signs of being committed to doing things the right way.
   
   
3. These are the things to know and are pillars of The Hemp Collect, a company founded on a desire to help people find access to the best products and inform them how to find them- as we do in this post. The Hemp Collect knows that educating the businesses they supply as well as the consumers who drive the industry’s decisions is the most important. As many times there is a desire to do right but a lack of clear knowledge around important questions and knowledge is power!
   
4. Do they use properly accredited labs for their product testing?
   
   
5. Do they test their products regularly? This doesn’t mean you need to see a new COA from them every month it just means they should be testing each batch of product they make to ensure safety and potency (as much as possible, potency testing is faulty and we cover that in this post).
   
   
6. Do they provide or show in any way they have in-depth knowledge on their products and the compounds within them including how they work with your system to be effective?
   
   
7. You’ll need to be educated enough to know what is just marketing fluff and what is a real statement because if you’re completely uninformed marketing fluff can sound like valid statements
   
   
   1. An example would be calling Delta 8 organic and even though it sounds good; there’s no organic Delta 8 that we have found. Organic Delta 8 would have to be purely plant extracted and not isomerized (which nearly ALL Delta 8 is) and then the Delta 8 would have to be processed in a certified organic processing facility. We have not seen anyone do this.
      
      
   2. Check out reputable easy-to-read and understand sites like ProjectCBD. Don’t just get all your information from companies trying to sell you something.

So carrying on to the review of Area 52’s gummies,

It’s always a good idea to read reviews before purchasing a product but it can be tough to know who to trust. Companies can easily write fake reviews on their own sites or pay for sponsored articles on different sites to show their product rated as number one, and this is common. Many consumers see these reviews and think they are real.

When reading reviews it’s important to note, who is the site publishing these reviews? Did they receive anything to post this review, including money or increased traffic? There are many sites that are built on making money to charge people to post reviews for them.

There are also larger well-known magazines with blogs that we have seen do product reviews where they never tried the product they just pick and post products from companies with lots of site traffic to get some of that traffic to their site, this is common on the web.

Just because a company has lots of site traffic doesn’t mean the products are better (it can be from that but it doesn’t guarantee it). Many people mistake seeing product everywhere as meaning it’s good but a lot of that exposure is paid and usually just means the company is spending more to be found.

Area 52 is most popular for their Delta 8 Gummies and while we weren’t able to find a lot of information on when the company started selling their Delta 8 products, we can see that their online presence is relatively new.

Based on our findings in the photo below, their site really took off from April 2021 to now which is not common. Most companies take longer to shoot up on organic traffic as it takes time for people to try products, like them, and tell family and friends to try them too.

So how do you know who to trust or when a product is good or not without having to spend a bunch of money trying to find out? One of our top tips is to always start with an understanding of who runs the company and guides the decisions being made.

Area 52 didn’t say much but does say their founder is a biochemist which we loved seeing. We like finding other companies with people at the top who have the knowledge and power to make the right choices and make safe high-quality Delta 8 products for consumers.

The Hemp Collect products are made by an on-staff chemical engineer with years of experience in cannabis and hemp product formulations. We use that expertise to guide making compounded formulations as we did with our Knockout Badder Dabs which couples Delta 8 with CBD live resin, which is one of the highest quality extracts you can use in products.

Area 52 describes their Delta 8 gummies as tasty with a “sweet and long-lasting Delta 8 vibe“. They also say their Delta 8 gummies are non-GMO, gluten-free, and low in sugar and that their Delta 8 is hemp-derived. All Delta 8 is hemp-derived unless it’s illegal so this is standard. We went based on online reviews, not site reviews to increase the likelihood the reviews are real and the overall consensus is the Delta 8 Gummy taste good.

Area 52 lists their Delta 8 Gummies ingredients as, “Hemp Extract, Pectin, Tapioca Syrup, Sugar, Water, Natural Flavors, Natural Colors, Citric Acid (< 2%), & Sorbic Acid,” which are all standard ingredients. It’s ideal to see natural colors used over synthetic ones. We also like they made the Delta 8 Gummies vegan as we do. Their site also says the Delta 8 Gummies contain less than 0.3% delta-9 THC in compliance with the 2018 Farm Bill which is again standard and good to see.

They mention using C02 and that it’s safer but additional clarity is needed to fully understand their intent with the statement. Delta 8, from our knowledge (and we have processing experience in cannabis and hemp) cannot be made using C02 unless it was solely extracted from hemp but they mention using isomerization so that isn’t the case.

That means they must be referencing that their CBD isolate is made using C02 extraction and while that may be true it doesn’t really have an impact on the quality of the Delta 8. CBD isolate is what the vast majority of Delta 8 is made from.

CBD isolate made from C02 instead of the more common method of ethanol, isn’t necessarily better either as CBD isolate is so refined it would be hard to have something harmful left in the final material and is not something we have come across. Ethanol is a more scaled method and is the most common. You can read more on it here:

They state carefully that they can’t make any claims to what Delta 8 can and can’t do but go on to say the compound shows promise showing a balance between the calming and balancing effects reported with the use of CBD and the headier effects felt with Delta 9 THC from cannabis.

We would agree with this statement based on the feedback we have received from those who have tried our Delta 8 THC Gummies. Many people do prefer the effects of Delta 8 THC to cannabis reporting that they feel more of a head high and less of a body high.

Area 52 goes on to say their Delta 8 Gummies may affect appetite stimulation, positive vibes, general discomfort, libido and connection. They also say the products are all-natural hemp-derived products. This is fine to say but also doesn’t mean much as all legal hemp products are hemp-derived.

They mention that the hemp used is organic. That’s great but since their Delta 8 is made through isomerization that means they start with CBD Isolate and CBD Isolate is nearly pure CBD so it’s not really important that the flower is organic and it loses any “organic” certification once combined with catalysts to isomerize the CBD to Delta 8. Still always good to support organic farmers so we are about it.

Area 52 talks about quality, purity, and safety- all good words but what do they mean specifically? It’s mentioned they have backgrounds in cannabis which hopefully means their cannabis background relates to extraction which is what they say it helps with.

The Hemp Collect’s CEO came from one of the largest cannabis processors in Oregon and our chemical engineer who is in charge of product development has set up numerous extractions labs in both the cannabis and hemp space so you could say we are experts in our craft here too.

We couldn’t find a COA with their Delta 8 Gummies product listing or anywhere else on their site. This doesn’t mean they don’t test their Delta 8 Gummies or other Delta 8 products, just that we couldn’t find the COA. You can find COA’s for all of the products including Delta 8 Gummies from The Hemp Collects here.

On another area of Area 52’s site, they mention doing independent lab testing which means they send the samples to someone and don’t just test it themselves. Some brands selling Delta 8 Gummies and other Delta 8 products do use test results from their own equipment so this is good to see but still the status quo overall from bigger Delta 8 companies in the space including The Hemp Collect.

They also say they test every batch which is good to hear but would be nice if they showed the COA’s on the site as is custom with transparent producers.

Reddit can be a tough place for reviews and they aren’t always fair and accurate as some people just want to troll but it also can still be a place for people to say their objective truth so we did look. Overall Reddit thoughts on Area 52 were a mixed bag.

Overall it was mostly good things except for a few who didn’t like the effects. The main sentiment was that they are overpriced for what you get.

If you skipped reading this entire blog post we suggest you read that section to understand what to look for in a Delta 8 product to validate whether it’s worth paying more for or not.

We found solid reviews on Trustpilot which is a good place to look especially when it says it’s from a verified buyer. A company could still fake that but it’s a lot more work and less likely. The rest of the reviews we found were in less trustworthy places like their own site, weed maps (which can also be altered), and some paid ones from press releases they did. The consensus overall is that they make a good product and it seems safe to trust that.

At the time of this post, the few Area 52 coupons codes we found were scams or were expired.

This is thrown in here because in our research we found a lot of people asking about Area 52’s carts and it is a product they sell in addition to the Delta 8 Gummies. From Reddit, nearly all comments were that they are overpriced.

On Area 52’s own site reviews as well as Trustpilot, the consensus was they are good. So you will have to decide for yourself if it’s worth paying that much for a cart. Most Delta 8 carts are the same.

Here are a few things we can say about cart quality though that’s worth saying:

The main things here are what’s in the Delta 8 CBD vape cartridge and what’s the quality of the cart hardware? With the cart hardware, there are aesthetic factors relating to preference like those who feel a more enjoyable experience with a glass versus plastic cart. There are many factors to consider, such as the number of intake holes are allowing for easier oil flow and how large the aperture of the carts are to allow for more viscous oils as you’ll find in out Live Resin D8 Carts.

Our concern and what we want to note are the more serious things that relate to safety like whether the vape cartridge hardware is made with potentially toxic compounds including glue and metals. Some low-cost carts have adhesives and metals that have been found to leach into the product inside the vape cartridge.

In an ideal world, everyone would use emissions-tested vape carts (which The Hemp Collect is adding in). But many don’t because the market is very competitive for vape cartridge sales and most buyers want the lowest price possible. This causes many vendors to look for ways to shave costs and one of the biggest cost factors of making vape cartridges besides the product input, is the cost of the cart hardware.

Emissions testing means testing the vapor expelled after someone takes a draw from the cart and blows it out. This is the best way to test as potential issues will be most obvious when the oil is heated on a pull.

Second to hardware but not any less important is the oil inside, and we are considering both the safety of the oil and the potency of the oil. These things are covered at the beginning of the blog post and are worth reading if you skipped it.

One Delta 8 vape cart may say it’s more potent than the next but that’s not always true. Learn about the errors in potency testing we wrote about earlier in this post.

Also, know that taking a puff off of a cart that is a small percentage of difference is not something you will really feel the difference of. As an example, we have tested 70% potency and 90% and the difference is usually more about the other minors and compounds present and less about the difference in Delta 8 potency.

Again, this also has to do with the inaccuracy of testing and the fact that a 90% cart may actually be 70%.

Last is the compounding of the oil in the cart. Some carts are just Delta 8 distillate and botanical terpenes which is fine for a low price point option that some people want. In those cases, nothing, other than the safety of the Delta 8 and the cart hardware used, makes one worth more for one than the next (if there are parodies on the other more important details).

In our opinion a properly compounded cart is the next best reason after safety, to pay more. In our research, having hemp or cannabis-derived terpenes (hemp is as good as cannabis from what we have found) does add value over botanical terpenes and we will do a write-up covering that soon. We also highly recommend additional compounding, especially with Delta 8 carts.

We see a lot of people selling THCo, HHC, THCp, and other compounds with Delta 8 now but the added benefits from these additions are not worth it in our opinion until more research is done around how these compounds combust and interact within the body. We have not seen enough evidence to give us confidence in the acedic compounds used to make the acetate forms of these cannabinoids and in turn remain headed in the direction of CBD Live Resin options.

We focus on using CBD Live Resin which has a lot more knowledge around it. Cannabis Live Resin is one of the highest quality extracts next to Rosin which is solventless. We have found adding CBD Live Resin makes a more complete profile coupled with the Delta 8 and makes a safe and more effective product that really gives consumers what they want which is a better but safe high. You can see our Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Cart here.

Want to have Delta 8 Gummies at your doorstep right away? You can order Delta 8 THC Gummies online here, orders ship within 24-48 business hours and it’s only $40. Why pay more for the same product? You can buy Area 52 Delta 8 Gummies as well as other brands of Delta 8 Gummies from many different e-commerce vendors online. There are also vendors and CBD stores in the following states that sell Delta 8 Gummies if you prefer to shop local which we always support!

You learned a lot above about testing for safety and potency and how skewed that can be (if you skipped it this is a really important section so go back and read). But let’s cover some of the basics as well including what Delta 8 is, what it does, and what warnings or safety concerns there are beyond correct testing (again go back to read this at top of post).

Delta 8 THC is not new and was discovered a long time ago and can be found in early cannabis and hemp-related books and articles. It did really take off after the 2018 farm bill passed when someone doing their homework read about the compound and realized it could be brought to market as a legal loophole and alternative to Delta 9 THC in the hemp market.

When it first appeared around June of 2020 it was really hard to find and was sold on average for $5000 a kilo. Few people had the SOP’s to make it so sourcing was hard and few knew what it was. It didn’t take long though. By January of 2021 SOP’s had been sold to all of the processors who were trying to stay afloat after not being able to sell their overstock of CBD isolate and distillate. The market had crashed from massive overproduction and Delta 8 was the hail mary. It quickly put processors back in business and took over the industry.

Nearly everyone was using CBD isolate and isomerizing it to produce Delta 8 rather than extracting the Delta 8 from cannabis and hemp plants which is a lot harder as it’s only found in trace amounts naturally in the plant. Beyond using isolate for production of Delta 8 there were a variety of variables for the rest of the process including using some generally “safer” and generally “not-as-safe” compounds. This is not new though as ethanol, butane, and other compounds which a consumer should never actually consume, are used to make cannabis extracts and then fully removed from the final extracts before the sale.

There are many analogs of THC besides Delta 8 THC ranging from Delta 2 THC up to Delta10 THC. Many people falsely assume that the number indicates the psychoactive potential of the THC but that is not the case. As in Delta 10 THC versus Delta 8 THC where Delta 8 is more psychoactive by a large margin.

Every analog has its own unique structure and these variances make a big difference as they impact how the body engages with each. It also impacts the legality of Delta 8 THC and the other compounds.

Here is a breakdown of the chemical structure from Pubmed:

We need to do much more research on the compound as stated before but there has been positive feedback from users indicating a potential to benefit the following: relaxation (71%); euphoria (68%) and pain relief (55%) but with those benefits came side affects for some users that while not serious are not desirable either including cognitive distortions such as difficulty concentrating (81%), difficulties with short-term memory (80%), and alerted sense of time (74%) (see photo below). This is from a study done by Jessica S Kruger ¹, Daniel J Kruger ^{2 3} called, “Delta-8-THC: Delta-9-THC’s nicer younger sibling?”

Participants generally compared Delta-8-THC favorably to both Delta-9-THC and pharmaceutical drugs, with most participants reporting substitution for Delta-9-THC (57%) and pharmaceutical drugs (59%). Participant concerns regarding Delta-8-THC were generally focused on continued legal access.

There isn’t a lot of research on Delta 8 Tetrahydrocannabinol overall and most of what we know is based on consumer feedback like the above study. We need much more to come to scientific conclusions. What we do know is Delta 8 shares many similarities with Delta 9 THC which is found in cannabis and hemp plants as well. There has been a lot more research done on Delta 9 THC which has shown it to have a range of medical benefits and is generally safe to consume with limited adverse effects which leads many to believe Delta 8 is also safe to consume.

As with all Delta 8 THC products, there’s the standard warning to avoid driving after you’ve consumed something with Deta 8 including Delta 8 Gummies. Consulting with a physician if you are nursing or pregnant is also advised. And of course- don’t be feeding Delta 8 Gummies to kids and/or anyone under 21 if you buy some online. Some Delta 8 THC Gummies like these, come in a child-resistant container to help minimize the risk of a child accidentally eating some.

This is something people don’t take as seriously, probably a lot due to Hollywood humorizing it in so many stoner movies but if you’ve ever been too high, you know it’s not humorous at all and can actually be quite uncomfortable. We have definitely fallen prey to eating way more than we should because an edible taste too good and (shameless plug) our Delta 8 Live Resin Caramels are someof the best caramels and hard to not eat a whole bag of.

Another common reason overdoing happens stems from consumers not knowing the onset time for the product they are taking. Inhaled products, for example, have nearly an instant effect, while edibles and consumed cannabis and hemp products can take as long as 30-60 minutes to even feel the first wave of effects. Additionally, edibles and consumed products have a peak effect which means they continue to intensify as time passes with the peak, or “max potential” of the psychoactive compounds occurring around 2-3 hours after consumption.

It’s interesting that many consumers new to cannabis and hemp prefer edibles to inhaled products as edibles are much easier to overdose and have a bad experience on and we actually don’t recommend them for first-time users. We understand they are less “taboo” and don’t require special knowledge of tools (like a pipe or torch) but it is a sad irony they are the most likely product form factor for adverse experiences.

For this reason, we highly recommend first-time users try softgels like the Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Softgels as they are easier to dose accurately and not over-eat and have the added benefit that they’re sugar-free and easier to travel with (as they won’t melt and make a mess).

But we digress- avoid eating too many Delta 8 Gummies or THC edibles in general as anyone who has ever overdosed on either will tell you- it’s no fun.

In a bad situation, if someone has consumed too much Delta 8 or THC edibles, beta-caryophyllene is reported to help reduce the effects and can be found in most homes. Science direct describes beta-caryophyllene as a, “dietary cannabinoid…β-Caryophyllene is the primary sesquiterpene contributing to the spiciness of black pepper; it is also a major constituent of (found in) cloves, hops, rosemary, copaiba, and cannabis.

It was one of the first cannabis-derived compounds other than THC, CBD, and CBN shown to bind directly to endocannabinoid receptors (Gertsch, 2008). In fact, it was one of the first cannabis-derived compounds with a fundamentally different structure from the classical cannabinoids that interact with the endocannabinoid system in humans. β-Caryophyllene is known to selectively bind to the CB2 receptor; therefore, it is sometimes also classed as an atypical cannabinoid (Gertsch et al., 2010).

Our second concern around Delta 8 and Delta 9 THC is around overconsumption of the compounds. Developing a clearer understanding on the impact of heightened levels of intake of the compound is necessary. There have been cases where overconsumption of Delta 9 THC, which has more studies, can cause issues for people including anxiety, vomiting, and nausea and we wonder if the same issue could be on the horizon with Delta 8 THC. With cannabis this is known as:

Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome (CHS) typically affects people who frequently use cannabis (marijuana). Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome causes frequent, severe nausea, vomiting, dehydration, and abdominal pain and it has been found that persons have a higher risk of developing Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome if consuming cannabis once a week or more. The Cleveland Clinic states, risk greatly increases for those who consume cannabis “chronically” (we can’t help but notice that terribly timed pun). In one study they found roughly 6% of people who visited the emergency room for vomiting had Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome but since many people don’t go to the ER when they are nauseous it’s hard to know the real number. They say the only way to cure Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome is to stop using cannabis. Many have switched from Delta 9 THC consumption to Delta 8 products as an option.

The National Center for Biotechnology has a published paper from Cecilia J. Sorensen,¹ Kristen DeSanto,² Laura Borgelt,³ Kristina T. Phillips,⁴ and Andrew A. Monte^1,5,6  where they found the major diagnostic characteristics (and frequency of each as it relates to Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome) are as follows:

• History of regular cannabis use for over 1 year (74.8%)
• Symptoms of severe nausea and vomiting (100%)
• Vomiting that recurs in a cyclic pattern over months (100%)
• Resolution of symptoms after stopping cannabis (96.8%)
• Compulsive hot baths/showers with symptom relief (92.3%)
• Male predominance (72.9%)
• Abdominal pain (85.1%)
• Minimum of weekly cannabis use (97.4%)
• History of daily cannabis use (76.6%)

What we expect to see on the horizon is that Delta 8 as well as other compounds- when consumed with frequency in higher unbalanced doses, has the potential to cause negative effects in some users. With no certainty around the variables impacting what triggers this response in certain individuals, we should proceed with thoughtfulness

Paying attention to nature is the easiest guide and our recommendation. Take note of the levels of these compounds found naturally in nature and how much we would consume them “pre-concentrated-extract-always-more-potency-please” days. We could not find a lot of cases of Cannabis hyperemesis syndrome pre-full on the recreational market where an obsession with “more and always more” Delta 9 THC potency has become the standard.

We highly advise consuming Delta 9 THC and Delta 8 THC with a healthy balance of CBD and the other plant compounds they are naturally found alongside in hemp and cannabis plants. Our interpretation of that has meant a transition to less pure Delta 8 products and more Delta 8 CBD products. Shameless plug- The Hemp Collect has a focus on producing Delta 8 products formulated with CBD Live Resin. We want to do our best to offer therapeutic products which we interpret as the inclusion of the widest amount of the plant’s phytochemistry as documented in most medical literature.

We cover this more in-depth earlier in this post and you should not miss reading it so if you skipped that section go back but to recap; it’s important Delta 8 products are properly tested.

This doesn’t mean you just look for a COA and if it says “pass” on it you are good to go. As we mentioned above, tests can easily be falsified or tests used from one product t represent another. And the worse case- toxic compounds weren’t tested for so even though the test says “pass” it can contain things that are harmful to consume.

Whether you want bulk wholesale Delta 8 extracts for making products or finished products, you can find some of the best quality options here. The Hemp Collect adds CBD Live Resin to many of their Delta 8 products to potentiate the desired effects by broadening the plant’s phytochemical spectrum found in the final product. You can find:

• Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Soft Gels
• CBD Live Resin Soft Gels (Delta 8 free)
• Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Vape Cartridges
• Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Caramels
• Delta 8 CBD Live Resin Gummies

THC edibles have limited access since many states still have yet to legalize cannabis on a medical or recreational level. Some people resort to purchasing THC edibles on Craigslist, through friends’ underground connections or questionable black market sites online. Here’s the thing there- we know too much and too many people from being in this industry as long as we have including seeing black market vendors spraying flower with mountain dew and delta 8 to make it sticky and sell hemp flower as cannabis….which we are speechless when we see these things and know consumers would be too if they saw what people will do for a buck so all that to say. In today’s reality, there is no need to buy cannabis flower or cannabis edibles from unreliable black-market sources as you may be actually buying Delta 8 they are passing off as cannabis or worse- buying an edible made with unsafe Delta 9 THC distillate (because it’s black-market, and in turn, it’s not tested). We offer Delta 8 THC Gummies that are made with high-quality ingredients, ISO-accredited lab-tested, and not only delicious but vegan and gluten-free. See our product guarantee on our product page for more information.

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